222 EXPLORING FOR CASTILLOA RUBBER 



of wood until all of the fibers are well bruised. The mass is then rinsed 

 in water, the fluid being run through a sieve, and poured into the 

 trough. Extreme care is taken not to stir the latex. Instead, as it 

 begins at once to coagulate on the top, the rubber is gently pressed 

 down, gathering to itself other particles, and at the same time it is 

 forced towards one side of the receptacle. Thus by gently manipulating, 

 squeezing, and handling, most of the coagulated rubber is finally gath- 

 ered into one piece, which is lifted out and kneaded until much of the 

 water is out of it. Some more amole water is then poured into the 

 remaining liquid, and by the same sort of careful manipulation another 

 smaller slab of rubber is secured. The two are then stuck together. 

 A week later the milk white mass of rubber will be jet black, of about 

 half its first weight, and apparently as dry as a bone. Unless it is cut 

 into strips and washed and dried again, and all of the amole liquor got 

 rid of, it will sweat and deteriorate, and have a smell that makes it most 

 offensive. 



The machete is used altogether for tapping by the natives in Cen- 

 tral America. Just by way of experiment I tried two different tools 

 that I brought with me from New York. One was a sort of farrier's 

 knife, that did pretty well, but was not heavy enough ; the other was 

 the type of tool that is now in general use in Ceylon. While it was 

 possible to tap with this latter tool, it did not do for the Castilloa as 

 well as for the Hevca. The strong fiber in the bark, unless the tool be 

 as sharp as a razor, makes the incision a tear rather than a clean cut. 

 It is possible that the tool may be changed in shape slightly and do the 

 work, but in its present shape it is not as good as the machete. Speaking 

 of the fiber in the outer bark of the Castilloa, the natives used formerly, 

 when they found a very large tree, to pound the bark until it was loose 

 then cut it off and dry it, and have a beautiful snow white sleeping- 

 mat, as soft as wool, and looking for all the world as if it were the 

 product of a loom. 



Here I must mention a rubber tapping tool invented by a native 

 Panamanian whom I met, and who is not only a rubber gatherer but a 

 thinker. Although so many men have tried to evolve a satisfactory 

 tapping device for rubber trees, it is singular that the thought of a 

 would-be inventor in this line, almost invariably, turns first to some 

 sort of vacuum or suction arrangement, that will not only act as a tapping 

 tool, but pump the latex out of the tree. Of course, a little study of the 

 formation of the lactiferous tubes makes it evident that nothing of this 

 sort is feasible. The suggestion, however, has come from a great 



